The present invention generally relates to the elemental analysis of samples and, in particular, relates to an apparatus and method useful for analyzing refractory substances.
One conventional class of the elemental analysis of unknown samples includes the oxidation of the sample under test and thereafter conveying the sample gas to a measuring cell. A particularly difficult group of materials to so analyze are those materials known as refractory substances. The difficulty lies in the fact that refractory substances are stable in the solid state at rather high temperatures.
At present, conventional instruments for analyzing refractory substances employ an induction furnace to achieve the necessary temperatures for oxidizing such substances. In general, the furnaces presently used for refractory material analysis are designed to reach temperatures on the order of about 2000.degree. C. While effective for the intended purpose, such instruments are also large, expensive and require elaborate interconnections for processing the sample gas. Additionally, such instruments are usually restricted only to the analysis of refractory substances and are quite ineffective for analyzing substances which melt or oxidize at much lower temperatures.
There is thence a need for a single instrument capable of analyzing both non-refractory substances and refractory substances without undue expense or loss of efficiency.